Henry Fielding

Henry Fielding is a figure of great significance in English literature and in the history of his own time. A hard-working Justice of the Peace in London, he was involved in establishing England's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, and worked tirelessly to counter social and criminal abuses both on the bench and by writing on legal cases. He was also highly involved in politics, editing three political journals in turn and writing satires and burlesques for the stage which were only cut short by the introduction of theatre censorship. It is, however, Fielding's novels which have preserved his name and reputation. They include between them almost all the range of his personality: classical learning, irreverent wit, desire to expose and counter social abuses, impatience with hypocrisy and pretension, knowledge of the dark undersides of English society and a typically eighteenth-century delight in high living. This edition is a facsimile of Leslie Stephen's 1882 edition of the Works. Alongside the complete novels and plays are less well-known prose works such as A Journey from This World to the Next and A Voyage to Lisbon, as well as Fielding's poetry, essays, writings on legal matters and political journalism. The contents of the volumes are as follows: Volume 1 ( pp.): Introduction to the Works by Prof. Alan Downie; Tom Jones, vol. I Volume 2 (558 pp.): Tom Jones, vol. II Volume 3 (646 pp.): Amelia Volume 4 (500 pp.): Joseph Andrews; A Journey from This World to the Next Volume 5 (479 pp.): Jonathan Wild; articles in The Champion Volume 6 (439 pp.): The Covent-Garden Journal; The True Patriot; The Jacobite's Journal; non-political essays; legal cases of Elizabeth Canning and Bosavern Penlez Volume 7 (426 pp.): A Voyage to Lisbon; A Charge to the Grand Jury; An Inquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers; writings associated with David Simple; classical translations; complete poetry Volume 8 (489 pp.): plays, 1728-1731 Volume 9 (501 pp.): plays, 1731-1734 Volume 10 (504 pp.): plays, 1734-1737 and the late The Fathers Alan Downie, Professor of English and head of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmith's, University of London and an authority on Fielding and the early modern novel, has written a new critical introduction to the Works as a whole, printed in volume 1.